1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a ZIF (Zero Insertion Force) socket, and more particularly to a ZIF socket for removably mounting a chip module, such as a Central Processing Unit (CPU), to a printed circuit board.
2. Description of Related Art
ZIF (Zero Insertion Force) socket is widely used in computer field for electrically connecting a chip module, such as a Central Processing Unit (CPU), to a circuit board to realize signal and data transmission therebetween.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,214,070, issued on May 8, 2007 and assigned to the same assignee as the present invention, discloses a conventional ZIF socket for electrically connecting a chip module to a printed circuit board. Such ZIF socket comprises a base mounted to the printed circuit board, a cover movably mounted to the base, and an actuator actuating the cover to slide between closed and open positions relative to the base. The base defines a plurality of contact-receiving slots accommodating a plurality of contacts, the cover correspondingly defines a plurality of through holes aligning with the contact-receiving slots. The actuator comprises a head portion received in a cover receiving cavity to drive the actuator to rotate, a linking portion extending downwardly from the head portion and received in a base receiving cavity, and a mounting portion formed at free end of the linking portion.
The head portion of the actuator is arranged to be above the base receiving cavity. However, when assembling some elements, such as a heat sink, the user needs to actuate the head portion to lock the actuator from the upper side of the printed circuit board, then screws the heat sink from the bottom side of the printed circuit board. This is not convenient and time consuming. This is also not user-friendly.
Therefore, it is desired to provide an improved to stress the ZIF socket to address problems mentioned above.